Share

About the Book

Impetus is the first collection of black and white photographs by Ryan Ewart. The images in this book represent years of single-minded obsession with artistic still life and macro photography. While the subject matter ranges from the common to the obscure, the intention behind the work remains the same; to bring into focus that which otherwise go unseen and give nature its due regard.

About the Author

“We must consider the distinctive characters and the general nature of plants from the point of view of their morphology, their behavior under external conditions, their mode of generation, and the whole course of their life.” -Theophrastus, c. 371 – c. 287 BC
Just like humans, trees and plants had to evolve to survive; they live, breathe, breed, suffer, thrive and, ultimately, die. They also have memories, evidenced in the rings of a tree, and maintain communities, evidenced in root networks. All of this, to me, adds up to a form of consciousness – one that we can learn from, if only we could fully appreciate it.
I find that leaves and flowers and other pieces of nature find their very own unique personality during the process of decay. My intent is to memorialize those brief moments when the soul of every natural thing is revealed before its obligatory demise – to revel in a world brimming at once with darkness and possibility.